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More than 100 Tory MPs are expected to back scrapping the ban on new grammar schools as a campaign launches this week to secure the change now Theresa May is in Number 10.

Conservative Voice, a Tory activist group launched by David Davis and Liam Fox in 2012, will formally restart its grammar schools campaign on Tuesday.

They will be writing to Mrs May and her new Education Secretary Justine Greening, holding events in Parliament and across the country and launching a social media drive to build up pressure.

The move comes after Ms Greening said she is “open minded” about allowing new grammar schools to open in England in a marked change in tone from David Cameron’s government.

Senior backers of grammar schools including Mr Davis and Mr Fox are now sat around the cabinet table while other frontbenchers have expressed support for expansions in their constituencies.

Campaigners believe now is their best chance for a generation of overturning Tony Blair’s block on the creation of new English grammar schools, enshrined in a law created in 1998.

Don Porter, the founder of Conservative Voice, told The Sunday Telegraph he would be restarting a campaign the group ran in 2014 to get the ban repealed during a meeting on Tuesday.

“We will be relaunching the grammar schools campaign due to the consistent and considerable interest that we are receiving around the country,” he said.

“I am absolutely delighted with the tone, style and content of the new Prime Minister’s agenda. In my view, a fundamental part of social mobility will be the return of grammar schools throughout the country.”

During a survey of Tory backbenchers in 2014 more than 100 MPs pledged their support and he is confidence there is now wider support for the change.

He said: “I am absolutely confident that at least the same level of support will be available again. We will be holding events both in the regions and at party conference to support this campaign together with a social media drive.”

Scrapping the grammar schools ban had become a lost cause for many Tories in recent years after David Cameron repeatedly closed the door on a change.

But confidence has been renewed after Ms Greening was installed in the Education Department earlier this month, using one of her first interviews to open the door on a policy change.

She told the BBC she was prepared to be "open minded" about allowing new grammar schools in England, saying it was "an important debate" to have.

There are currently 163 grammars left in England out of around 3,000 state secondaries, with a further 69 in Northern Ireland.

Mrs May and Michael Fallon, the Defence Secretary, have both previously supported new annexes being created to grammar schools in their constituencies.

Campaigners insist a majority of party members and MPs would back the return of grammar schools while Mrs May’s chief of staff, Nick Timothy, has expressed interest for a rule change in the past.

Graham Brady, a Tory MP and chair of the influential 1922 backbench committee, resigned from Mr Cameron’s front bench in protest at his refusal to back new grammar schools in 2007.

“In the drive to raise educational standards, we should only be concerned with what works not with ideology,” he told The Telegraph.

“We know the grammar schools make a big contribution to raising standards and increasing social mobility.

“We should focus on making them available as widely as people want them and ensuring that entry to them is as fair as possible especially for people from less affluent backgrounds.”

With the Tories enjoying a working majority of just a dozen, any policy change would likely have to win the support of some Labour MPs to pass given the chance of rebellions.

To widen the appeal, campaigners for the change will attempt to paint grammar schools as a driver of social mobility that fits in with Mrs May’s “One Nation” agenda.

They will suggest the first new 20 grammar schools are created in socially deprived areas to challenge the image they are targeted at the middle class.

Dominic Raab, the Tory MP Esher and Walton who was justice minister until the reshuffle this month, supports a change in the rules

"It's good news the new government is looking again at the position. Grammar schools have a track record of driving social mobility,” he told The Sunday Telegraph.

“The key will be expanding its benefits from a middle class preserve, to reach bright youngsters from some of the most disadvantaged communities."